Apparatus for steaming fabrics, &amp;c.



Patented Nov. 5, 190|. I L. SEITHER. APPARATUS FOR STEAMING FABRICS. &c.

(Application filed Sept. 12, 1900,)

2 Sheets-Sheet l.

(No Model.)

ne @viewf- Patented NOV. 5, I90l. L. SEITHER.

APPARATUS FOR STEAMING FABRICS, 81,6.

(Application led Sept. 12, 1900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

ma Nessus PETERS co. Fumo-mma. wAsHmmoN. u. n.

'NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LUDWIG SEITHER, OF MLHAUSEN, GERMANY, ASSIGN OR TO EMIL VVELTER, OFMULHAUSEN, GERMANY, A FIRM.

APPARATUS FOR STEAMING FABRICS, C.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 685,949, dated November5, 1901.

Application filed September l2, 1900. Serial No. 29,754. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern/.-

Be it known that I, LUDWIG SEITHER, a subject of the Emperor of Germany,and a resident of Mlhausen, Alsace, in the German Empire, have inventeda new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Cleansing, Steaming, andWashing Fabrics in or Preparatory to Bleaching or Finishing Processes,of which the following is a specification.

This invention is particularly designed for the preparation of fabricsfor bleaching or 'finishing by subjecting them first to the action of analkaline or other chemical cleansing liquor, next to the action ofsteam, and afterward to the actionv of water or washing liquid-5 and theobject of the improvement is to provide an apparatus for such or likepurposes in which the steam employed may be maintained at a pressuresufficiently greater than that of the atmosphere to give it a desirabletemperature.

An apparatus embodying my invention is provided with a central chamberfor containing steam at a desirable pressure and two smaller` chambers,one at the entrance and the otherat the exit end of the first-mentionedchamber. The smaller chamber at the entrance end is filled with treatingliquid and the other with washing liquid, and through the three chambersthe material to be treated is conducted/The treatment is effected asfollows: The Woven or other fabric is passed in the form of a continuousweb first downward and then upward in the chamber filled with thetreating liquid, then, preferably by means of a pair of endless chainsand transversely-arranged metal carrying-tubes attached thereto, iscarried in hanging folds or loops through the central chamber understeam-pressure, whence it passes first in a downward and then in anupward direction through the chamber lled with the washing liquid. Theliquids in the two end chambers are made, as hereinafter described, toformhydraulic seals for the central chamber, which contains no liquid,but only dry steam, which may be, by means of the hydraulic seals,confined in said chamber at a pressure higher than that of theatmosphere.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l represents a longitudinalvertical section of a complete apparatus; and Fig. 2, a plan, the coverbeing removed. Fig. 3 is a side view, partly in section, showing thefold-layin g arrangement on a larger scale than in Figs. 1 and 2.

In the tank a two chambers d and e are formed by the arrangement shownof the division-walls b and c, which extend from the bottom nearly tothe top of the tank, one of said chambers, d, being sufficiently filledwith chemical treating liquid and the other, e, with washing liquid.Into these chambers dip the end walls fand g of the central chamber 71,.The division-walls b c, extending to the bottom of the tank a, shut offcommunication between the lower parts of the chambers d c and the lowerpart of the central chamber h, which is the steam-chamber, and soprevent the liquid in the chambers (l e from entering the said chamberh. The end wallsfand g do not reach to the bottom of the end chambers de, but terminate at a suitable distance below the level of the liquid inthe latter. By means of the end wallsfand g two divisions in each of theend chambers are formed in connection the one with the other, throughwhich divisions the material to be treated is conducted. For thispurpose there are arranged in each of the chambers d and e, below theend walls fand g, guide-rollers 'L' and 7c for the woven fabric or othermaterial to be treated. This material, as will be seen by Fig. l, isiirst conducted downward through the chamber oland the treating liquidtherein, then around the guide-roller c', and again upward betweensqueezing-rollers l to draft-rollers m into the central chamber h, whichis heated by means of ribbed tubes n, arranged at the bottom thereof,and is supplied with steam by means of the perforated tubes o, arrangedunderneath the cover of the chamber. The cover itself consists of heatedsteam-plates in order to prevent the dripping of liquid onto the goods.The steam-presso re generated in the chamber 7L presses against thesurface of the liquid standing in the end chambers dand e between thewalls Z7 andfand c and g, by which action a secure closing or sealing ofthe steam-chamber h to the atmosphere will be 'eected Through thischamber, which is under steam-pressure, the material S to be IOO treatedpasses from the rollers m to metal carrying-tubes r, mounted in twoendless chains q, running on wheels t, the shafts u of which run insuitable fixed bearings within the steam-chamber and to one of whichshafts constant rotary motion is given by any suitable means for thepurpose of giving the chains a sufficiently slow movement relatively tothat of the rollers fm to allow the material on its way through thechamber h to be fed down between the tubes r in the form of hangingfolds, as shown in Fig. l, by any suitable means provided forthatpurpose. From these chains q and their carrying-tubes o" thematerial is carried first downward through the washing liquid in thechamber e, then around the guide-roller It, and again upward and betweensqueezing-rollers o and out of the apparatus.

Any suitable means may be employed to produce the hanging folds of thematerial between the carrying-tubes r, but as such means are notincluded in the present invention I have not thought it necessary torepresent or describe'them.

The several rollers l, m, and p, which all rotate with correspondingsurface velocities, mayhave their rotary movements given to them by anysuitable means, which I have not thought it necessary to represent ordescribe.

What I claim as my invention isl. An apparatus for treating fabricscomprising a central steam-chamber, two chambers for liquids one at eachend of said steamchamber and both in communication with the upper partthereof, hydraulic seals between said steam-chamber and the twoliquid-chambers for the exclusion of the liquids from the steam-chamberand the confinement of the -steam therein under pressure, and means forcarrying a fabric first through one liquidchamber, neXt through thesteam-chamber and finally through the other liquid chamber,substantially as herein described.

2. In an apparatus for treating fabrics, the combination with a centralsteam-chamber 7L and two liquid-chambers d e at opposite ends thereofsaid steam-chamber and said liquidchambers having between them innerwalls b c and outer walls f g said inner walls closing communicationbetween said steam and liquid chambers at their bottoms butleavingcommunication between their upper parts free and said outer wallsextending from the top of the steam-chamber to within some distance fromthe bottoms of the liquid-chambers, of means for carrying the fabricfirst downward and then upward through one of said liquid chambers,thence through said steam-chamber, thence first downward and then upwardthrough the other of said liquidchambers, all substantially as hereindescribed.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed myname, in presence of two witnesses, this 28th day of August, 1900.

LUD WIG SEITHER.

iVitnesses:

A. LEBoR, CHR. WEILBRENNER.

